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Chatsworth from across the River Derwent |
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Chatsworth from the gardens |
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Chatsworth and Paine's bridge from across the River Derwent |
The Stables
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The Stables, Chatsworth |
The North Entrance Hall
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The North Entrance Hall, Chatsworth |
The North Sub Corridor
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The North Sub Corridor, Chatsworth |
The Painted Hall
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The Painted Hall, Chatsworth |
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The Courtyard, Chatsworth |
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The Painted Hall, Chatsworth, from the balcony |
The Grotto
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The Grotto, Chatsworth House |
The Chapel Corridor
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The Chapel Corridor, Chatsworth |
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A gigantic foot, in the Chapel Corridor, Chatsworth |
The Oak Room
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The Oak Room, displaying a model of Chatsworth House in the centre |
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The Oak Room, Chatsworth |
The Chapel
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The Chapel, Chatsworth |
The Chapel has four Ashford black marble columns which were carved from a single block quarried on Sheldon Moor, near Ashford-in-the-Water, just a few miles away from Chatsworth.
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The Chapel, Chatsworth |
The Great Stairs
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The Great Stairs, Chatsworth |
The State Apartment: The Great Chamber
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The Great Chamber, Chatsworth |
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Delftware vases in the Great Chamber, Chatsworth |
The State Apartment: The State Music Room
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The State Music Room, Chatsworth |
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The violin door in the State Music Room, Chatsworth |
State Apartment: the State Bedroom
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The State Bedroom, Chatsworth |
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Silver-gilt toilet set in State Bedroom, Chatsworth |
The State Apartment: The State Closet
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The State Closet, Chatsworth |
The Old Master Drawings Cabinet
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The Old Master Drawings Cabinet, Chatsworth |
South Sketch Gallery
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The South Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth |
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Portraits of the 5th Duke and his two wives: on the right, Lady Georgiana Spencer, and on the left, Lady Elizabeth Foster, in the South Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth |
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Part of the mineral collection on display in the South Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth |
West Sketch Gallery
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Lord Burlington in West Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth |
North Sketch Gallery
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North Sketch Gallery, Chatsworth |
Guest bedrooms
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Guest bedroom, Chatsworth |
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Guest bedroom, Chatsworth |
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Guest bedroom, Chatsworth |
The Oak Stairs
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The Oak Stairs, Chatsworth |
The Library
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The Library, Chatsworth |
The Ante-Library
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The Ante-Library, Chatsworth |
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The Dome Room, Chatsworth |
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The Dome Room, Chatsworth |
The Great Dining Room
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The Great Dining Room Chatsworth |
Sculpture Gallery
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The Sculpture Gallery, Chatsworth |
The Cascade
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The Cascade, Chatsworth |
"Exactly behind the house, and looking up towards the top of the hill, you see, between two lines of lofty wood, a flight of colossal stone steps, straight like Jacob's ladder, terminated at the top by a temple with a metal cupola. The gardener made a sign, and water flowed over this cupola and down the sides of the temple, and burst from the ground before it, then began to fall from step to step, sweeping off and carrying along the accumulated dirt of the winter, covering the whole in due time with a sheet of foam, and sparkling in the sun."(3)
Horace Walpole bemoaned the "absurdity of a cascade tumbling down marble steps, which reduces the steps to be of no use at all." (1)
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Dragon at the top of the Cascade, Chatsworth |
"The famous Cascade, one of those grand water works, which half a century ago, rendered Chatsworth the greatest wonder of Derbyshire, and gave it a celebrity which it has not yet lost, lies to the south-east of the house. It consists of a series or flight of steps, extending nearly two hundred yards from one end to the other, down a steep hill, crowned at the top with a Temple.
This fane, (observes Mr. Warner) should certainly be dedicated to Mercury, the god of fraud and deceit, as a piece of roguery is practiced upon the incautious stranger within its very sanctuary; from the floor of which, a multitude of little fountains suddenly spout up, whilst he is admiring the prospect through the portal, and quickly wet him to the skin.
After this practical joke, the cascade is put in motion by another screw, and certainly is grand in its kind; the water rushes in a vast quantity, and with great force and noise, from the domed roof of the temple, and from a great variety of dolphins, dragons, and a number of other figures that ornament it ; and falling into a basin in front of the building, (which also throws up several fountains) is thence discharged, and rolls down the long stages of steps before-described; and having reached the bottom, disappears by sinking into the earth." (4)
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The Cascade, Chatsworth |
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The 1st Duke's Greenhouse, Chatsworth |
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The Emperor Fountain with Chatsworth House in the background |
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The Grotto Pond, Chatsworth |
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The Maze, Chatsworth |
For more about the history of Chatsworth and the Georgians who lived there, see my Regency History guide to Chatsworth.
Notes
(1) From a letter from Horace Walpole to George Montagu dated 1 September 1760.
(2) From Peak Scenery or The Derbyshire Tourist by E Rhodes (1824).
(3) From Louis Simond's Journal of his tour in 1810-11.
(4) From David Davies' A new historical and descriptive view of Derbyshire (1811).
Sources used include:
Chatsworth House Trust, Chatsworth, Home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, guidebook (2005)
Chatsworth House Trust, Your guide to Chatsworth (2014)
Davies, David Peter, A new historical and descriptive view of Derbyshire: from the remotest period to the present time, Volume 1 (1811)
Rhodes, E, Peak Scenery or The Derbyshire Tourist (1824)
Simond, Louis, Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain, during the years 1810 and 1811 vol 2 (1815)
Walpole, Horace, Letters of Horace Walpole, selected and edited by Charles Duke Yonge Vol I 1736-1764 (1890)
All photographs © Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato
Video © Andrew Knowles
I covet the library and ante-library... and I must have known too many small boys to be able to think what fun to pack snow in winter on the cascade and let loose enough water to freeze on top to make a massive and delightfully dangerous slide to go down on trays purloined from the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteThe library is my favourite room. So many books and such a warm feel to the room, even though you can only stand at the doorway and peer in longingly.
DeleteAs for the Cascade - I wonder whether it's ever been done?!
The cascade is very pretty. I also loved the library! Just want to sit and read!
ReplyDeleteI can quite see why the current Duke keeps the library for himself, but I am so glad he lets us peek through the door at this little paradise. :)
DeleteI must be an old leftie, though magnificent, I think it obscene I wonder and think of the serfs and slaves (the amount they were paid was not even paltry) and what did they, the owners, do to earn and warrant all of this? Supported the king? Off with their heads!
ReplyDeleteWhat revolutionary thoughts! As you say, a magnificent house inherited by the Duke of Devonshire from his father before him.
DeleteHi Rachel, thank you for the link to these wonderful photographs. The connection I wrote of yesterday is joined by a connection to the Duke of Devonshire....I think if we met I could talk to you for hours! Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteWhat an illustrious family tree - I wish I could claim such connections! I could certainly talk about Duchess of Devonshire and her time for hours and hours. :)
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